Attan – From Nothing (Review)

Attan are from Norway and play Hardcore/Post-Hardcore. This is their début EP.

Coming across as an unholy mix of bands like Vision of Disorder, Will Haven, Converge and Neurosis, Attan are heavy and intense.

This music is dark and visceral, containing a primal rage and destructive intensity. The songs are passionate exemplars of heaviosity that pay tribute to their influences while making their own way down the ill-lit avenues of dark Hardcore; others may have been here before but Attan are carving their own bloody way through the landscape.

It’s hard not to like music that’s this focused on intensity and heaviness; indeed, those two words are probably already overused in this review, but they describe Attan perfectly. Attan play with as much intensity and heaviness as they can muster, and that’s a lot.

Fast, savage attacks are all very well, but it’s the slower wall-of-guitar-style sections that really ramp it up for me. It’s the kind of stuff that Will Haven were always so good at doing; atmosphere through distortion.

I haven’t mentioned the vocals yet – these mainly consist of shredding shrieks and deeper, throaty semi-cleans/shouts. The former provide an intense, (there’s that word again), sharp focal point while the latter provide a heavier, (and again…), counterbalance that lends authority and weight to proceedings.

Attan have thoroughly impressed me with this. At only 22 minutes long I cannot wait to hear more from them in the future, as From Nothing is right up my street, so to speak.